Thursday, November 8, 2012

There has been an incredible amount of interest and enthusiasm the Viewthrough.org effort from across the ad technology stack, evolving intoa real grass-roots Viewthrough Measurement Consortium. Many thanks to all those who have taken the time to share their considerable insights, ideas and candid feedback.

LEARNINGS SO FAR
Below are some key learnings gathered from throughout this process:

Nobody is happy about clickthrough measurement and its inherent biases

With the DAA and IAB doing their own thing and the emergence of ad viewability as the latest bright shiny object, viewthrough measurement continues to be looked over

Most everyone wants better viewthrough measurement but are unsure how to push this forward on their own

Many digital advertising companies across the ad tech stack are already measuring viewthrough but don't necessarily label it viewthrough or they are not breaking it out in their reports today.

Reasons include that it is confusing to clients/agencies that are still
focused on last-click attribution; also, that there is that lack of
standard definitions, i.e. mention viewthrough and get ready to teach.

It is apparent that analytics and advertising vendors are seeking a meaningful way to report passive display media response. It should be a concern to everyone that many ad networks do not get credit for viewthrough performance today, itself a by-product of slimy performance networks and cookie-stuffing. While the bigger Viewthrough.org strategy evolves (advocacy, research, standards, best practices), there is a definitely tangible step that is low-cost and be taken today.

NEXT STEP: VIEWTHROUGH SCORECARD
Vendors that are already reporting on passive post-exposure response to display media (beyond clickthroughs) ought to consider letting the industry know.Whether it is raw viewthrough visits, a viewthrough rate or viewthrough conversions, now is the time and this is the place.

Below is the current list of vendors known to the Viewthrough Measurement Consortium that provide analytics/reports that specifically containing viewthrough performance:

About the VMC

Viewthrough.org is the home of the Viewthrough Measurement Consortium, an ad hoc collaboration between among digital ad industry/analytics professionals seeking to improve the understanding of this important digital advertising metric.